Aylings Amblings

We had two days back in York after Durham which included Uncle John thrashing Darren in golf at Uncle's club, Sandburn Hall; wandering around the pretty streets of York, and a drive out towards the Yorkshire Dales to Brimham Rocks- as it turns out the only day of rain we've had on this trip so we got a little wet scrambling over the huge rock formations ( the weather on this trip has been incredible- the kids have got a false idea of what the English summer is like! Every day except the Brimham rocks day has been blue skies and late 20's or 30's. Driving back into London yesterday the temperature hit 37). It was very hard saying goodbye to Uncle John, we picked up a rental car in York, and headed south for a whistle stop tour. Over the last few days we've stayed in an old English country hall nestled in the hills in the Cotswolds ( we were invited to join in a wedding celebration that was happening there), a steam punk tiny house on someone's back lawn in Brig...

We've had a lovely time in Durham with family. We took the train from York to Durham last Thursday afternoon and were met at Durham station by Darren's mum's cousin Jean. The following morning we went with Jean to Beamish Museum- it was a great opportunity for the kids to learn about our family coal mining history, and to see what it was like to live in the north of England in years gone by. Beamish is great, a really authentic experience- all the staff including cleaners and maintenance wear period costumes. The maintenance people drove around in a 1940's truck. We learnt about dentistry and printing in the late 1800's and into the 1900's. They've recreated a town at Beamish including a brick by brick reconstruction of a general store that Darren's great grandmother used to shop at when it was in its original location. We continued the learning about mining the next day in Durham- it was the Durham Miners Gala or 'Th' big meetin day'- abou...

On Wednesday, we drove into York and dropped off the rental car-the Peugeot 308GT had been a pleasure to drive, once we figured out how to turn the parking brake off! We constantly turned the windscreen wipers on when we thought we were indicating, and we had a drama with the car alarm we can regale you all with at some point! Our tour in York was guided by cousin James- we walked along the impressively preserved city wall, past the ruins of Roman occupation that date from the 70's AD and into the city by one of the gates in the wall. We went to Yorvik via the Minster, and the Shambles. Yorvik is a very cool museum that explores the history of the Vikings in York- the kids enjoyed finding out about their Viking history. After this we had lunch by abbey ruins in the park, where Jack got to fulfil a dream by meeting a peregrine falcon , and Karis got to hold a very cute 9 week old tawny owl. From there we went to the national railway museum- which has an impressive collection of trai...

On Tuesday, we travelled to Whitby. It's a town with a few links to NZ and to the Ayling family. Darren's dad was evacuated to Whitby during World War Two, and his great uncle, Les Simpson, owned a butchery on the old cobbled lane that leads to the famous 199 steps up to the abbey. We managed to find the butchers shop- it still has Simpsons written on tiles on the street frontage. The shop is being gutted at present to become a gallery and the builder let us in to have a look- you can still see the rails where the butchers hooks were hung, the tiles on the wall; and out the back the remains of the staircase that lead up to the apartment upstairs- one of my early memories is helping my great uncle wrap some sausages for a customer when I was a wee lad.  Whitby's link to NZ is that it was home to Captain Cook, and memorabilia is all around the town - including a replica of the Endeavour that looks convincing from a distance but when you get close up you realise st the "p...

We took Aunty Judy out for coffee in Hemel Hempstead before heading to the old market town of St Albans- we arrived in time to find a pub to watch the England World Cup quarterfinal- a great place to be for the game. After, we wandered around the town- the cathedral at St Albans is the place in England where Christianity has been practised the longest - since late in the third century. The cathedral is said to be built over the spot where St Alban was martyred in about 305ad. Near the cathedral is England's oldest pub dating from the late 700's. Apparently Oliver Cromwell stopped in for a pint in the 1600's. By the time we got back to the market square England football fans were in post game revelry stumbling over the cobblestones- so we exited St Albans and drove to St Ives to cousin Rachel's in time to watch Russia go out of the World Cup! On Sunday we had a quiet morning at Rachel and Arthur's and then drove into Cambridge. Highlights were visiting the colleg...

So I (Darren) had it all planned in my mind - our booking at Harry Potter studio was 12pm in Hemel Hempstead, north of London- we'd have plenty of time for me to catch the bus to Waterloo, pick up the rental car, drive back to Camberwell, load up the car and drive north- except we didn't! I was late leaving the house and then the traffic was atrocious- 12pm came and we were still on the M25- we prepared the kids that we may miss out ( the tickets said there was no guarantee that if you miss your time you can still get in). We drove into the carpark at 12:15- somewhat frazzled, with a few choice words having been spoken by the driver! We drove up to the attendant and told him the story and he said no worries you're less than half an hour late so you'll be all good- much cheering from our car! The tour was excellent- a fantastic experience. So cool to see the sets and costumes from the film, and see how the movies were made- it's a great place. When we finished we fou...

Wow, we've covered a lot in the last few days! We had three days that we went into central London- every day was boiling hot- around 28! In those days we've packed in the Tower of London, the Roman London wall, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, St James Park, St Paul's Cathedral, the National Gallery, the Science Museum, the Natural History museum, Covent Garden, Hamleys toy store, horse guards parade, and a look at Westminster - phew! The kids have been fantastic- they've covered a lot of walking on really hot days and in crowded tubes and buses. Thursday was our longest day- we left home at about 8:30 in the morning and got home around 10 after having dinner with Darren's cousin James and his partner Shernaz in the city.